Memory
by captainbean
Summary: Whilst in the TARDIS, Rose suddenly remembers her encounter with the Tenth Doctor on New Year's 2005. She wonders how they can have met then, when she had yet to meet Nine. Rose x Ten


**Memory**

Rose looked at him curiously, dwelling on a thought, a memory, a dream she couldn't quite remember. It had come to her quite suddenly as she watched him tinkering away, fixing something on the other side of the TARDIS and half hidden in shadows. She had looked up when he had jammed him finger in the grate by accident and tried to stifle his cry of pain. And that tiny moment, the cry of pain, the Doctor squinting his eyes in discomfort, half hidden in shadows... why was it so familiar?

She stood up slowly from her chair at the console, not daring to take her eyes off him. If she looked away she was sure she'd never figure out the odd feeling of déjà vu she was experiencing. With a small frown of concentration she observed him, frustratedly trying to work out why this insignificant moment felt so... well, _significant_.

Flexing his fingers to shake off the small spurt of pain, the Doctor looked up to find Rose peering at him in confusion, her head cocked to one side and her eyes slightly narrowed.

"Everything ok?" he enquired, eyebrows raised.

Rose jumped out of her reverie, unaware the Doctor had noticed her whilst she'd been trying remember... what exactly? She couldn't shake the feeling it was something important.

"Oh, yeah, great." She smiled, rocking back on her heels and hugging her arms to her chest. "You alright?"

"Fine..." He replied, flexing his injured hand again and joining her at the console. He flicked a few of the TARDIS switches for good measure. "Are you sure you're ok? You looked a bit put out."

"It's nothing..."

The Doctor leaned back on the console, folded his arms and simply stared at her, eyebrows still raised.

"If you're not careful, it'll stay that way," Rose smirked, nodding to his eyebrows which were almost disappearing into his hairline. Smiling slightly, he relaxed his face but still said nothing, silently prompting her to tell him why she was so preoccupied.

"Ok, fine! It's probably nothing but I just got the weirdest feeling a minute ago when you hurt yourself, and I looked up and it felt like I'd done it all before. Like I'd turned around and you were there and you were hurt and it was dark and..."

"And?"

"It was snowing." She finished shortly, with a shrug.

"It was snowing." He repeated doubtfully. "It doesn't snow in the TARDIS, Rose. That I know of, anyway. I've only managed that once, I'd short-circuited Her and a blizzard opened up in the Library, you should have seen it..." He trailed off, deciding to get back on topic. "But that was just the one time. So. Snowing."

She closed her eyes, pressing her fingers to her temples and trying to remember. "It was before the TARDIS. It was Christmas. No, New Year!" Her eyes snapped open in delight at being able to place the memory. "Yeah, me and Mum were on our way back to the flat, and you asked me what year it was! I thought you were drunk..." She frowned. "That's not right, though. Because it was 2005 and you looked like you _now_, and I hadn't met you _then_ yet..." She looked up at him. "Does this make any sense?"

"Absolutely," Eyes wide and chewing on his bottom lip, he nodded slowly. Rose raised an eyebrow in disbelief and the Doctor gave in, changing tactics and shaking his head in honesty. "Ok, no, but that doesn't mean it won't. The first time we met in my timeline was in the basement of that huge shop you worked in. Living plastic trying to kill us. Leather jacket. Big ears. Not ginger."

Rose smiled. "They weren't so bad,"

"Autons or ears?" he teased.

"_Ears_," she prodded him in the arm.

"Right," he grinned. "So. There we were, Autons, ears, running. That's definitely the first time I met you. But that doesn't have to mean that's the first time you met me."

"What?"

"Timey wimey, wibbly wobbly... stuff."

"So you're saying _you_'ve-" she pointed at him, "-gone back and met _me_-" she pointed at herself, "-before I met you how you were before?" She frowned. "Is that right?"

"Well, it's entirely possible. I haven't done it yet, because I don't remember. That must be in my future, but it's in your past."

She sighed. "This is confusing. Why would you do that? I thought you said it was dodgey to do stuff like that?"

"Technically speaking, it can be very dangerous. I won't know until I get there." He smiled at her as she continued to look worried. "Look, what did I... _will_ I... say to you?"

"You asked me what year it was, and I said 2005, and you said I was going to have a great year," She grinned broadly.

"That doesn't sound timeline-destroyingly-dangerous." He put his arm around her to reassure her. "Stop worrying."

"I suppose." Her small smile disappeared. "But you were hurt. That's why I turned around. And why I remembered a minute ago."

"Nah," he waved a hand to brush this off. "Might have stubbed my toe. Might have landed there by accident and had to ask you the year to make sure I didn't bump into myself. Could be anything. _Stop worrying._" He looked at her intently, squeezing her shoulder.

"Fine," the smile returned to her face as she gave in.

"Excellent!" He removed his arm from her shoulders and pulled a few levers on the console. "Did you, by the way?"

"What?"

"Have a great year?" He grinned.

"Yeah." She grinned back. "Met this bloke with big ears. _Great_ car."

"Ah, right, right. Fancy taking it for a spin?" he asked, as the TARDIS began to shudder into life.

"You're on," She laughed. "I need a jacket. Be back in a second."

The Doctor's smile left his face as he watched her bound out of the console room, down the hallway and towards her bedroom. He'd managed to reassure Rose that her forgotten memory was nothing to be concerned with, but he wasn't so sure. He had no idea why he'd take such a risk, crossing timelines and potentially jeopardise his past self meeting Rose... The Doctor could only assume he'd take such a risk for only the most extreme of circumstances. He'd just have to wait to find out what that would be.

"Ready!" Rose called as she ran back towards him.

There was no use dwelling on it, he decided. Sometimes even he was forced to take the slow path. He smiled down at Rose. Time was on their side for now.

"Where to?" he asked.

**-Fin-**


End file.
